Even though Burning Man just ended on Monday, a local nonprofit is already preparing for next year's event.
The Reno Bike Project is collecting bike donations from around town and from the playa to get ready for next year.
The Burning Man pop-up is the organization's biggest fundraiser of the year, and they have a lot of bikes to go through to prepare for it.
"We probably have about 300 [at our Fourth Street warehouse]," says Executive Director Andy Perkins. "We probably anticipate getting another 100 from the Burner Express."
Perkins says so far, the Reno Bike Project has received more donations after this year's Burning Man than in 2024. Sales were down at the pop-up shop during the last week of August, but 2024 was a record year.
He adds that the nonprofit is still waiting on the lion's share of burner bikes.
"We're going to get trailers of abandoned bikes out on the playa," Perkins says. "So, all the abandoned bikes come out, and we'll get probably 600 or 700 bikes from that too."
One of those trailers will be at the RBP warehouse at 635 East Fourth Street at 9 a.m. Thursday morning. The group is looking for volunteers to help unload the truck.
Perkins says a lot of bikes come from Black Rock City in such bad shape that the organization has no choice but to recycle them. Thankfully, a good amount can be restored and resold the next year. But first, the playa dust has to come off.
"That dust is corrosive," Perkins says. "It's on pretty much every bike. It's got to be cleaned up anywhere it touches metal. There's a lot of metal on bikes."
Once the bikes are freed from the playa dust, they can be repaired and tuned up. This process can take longer than you might expect.
"The average person just thinks it's a clean-up and that sort of thing," Perkins says, "but it's, you know, an hour or so on each of these bikes to get it ready for next year."
Right now, Perkins says they're focused on getting the bikes, sorting them, and figuring out the next step.
In the meantime, the organization says it accepts anything bike-related in any condition, even if it's rusted, torn, or otherwise damaged.
"Parts, posters, clothing," Perkins says. "We'll take anything and then figure out what to do with it."
The Reno Bike Project asks that you bring your donations to its warehouse at 635 East Fourth Street. You can swing by anytime from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, or 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Thursdays and Fridays. The warehouse is closed Sunday and Monday.
The organization will accept donations at 216 East Grove Street during the same hours, but they prefer donations at the Fourth Street location since the bikes are processed there
